Stark POV Untamed
by XxBlazestormxX
Summary: This is just something i wrote a while ago. Jame Stark's point of view for Untamed. I didn't bother to do when he was awoken by Neferet. I couldn't really care less. Please read it! I think its good. It got a 4. Thats good right? :


**For my ELA class I had to write this. I just wanted to get it up on fanfic. For now, enjoy this story of James Stark's time in the Oklahoma House of Night. It ends when he dies, before Kalona comes. MY VA fans don't get discouraged, I'm going to write again.**

**-TheVampLuvr1**

**Stark POV**

"James, the dog isn't going to fit in here with all the cats." Dragon Lankford, one of the vampyre professors said to me. I was being flanked by professor Lenobia and Dragon Lankford, as well as a few of the Sons of Erebus, and they were all chasing me trying to reason to me that the dog should not be in a place filled with cats.

I stepped through the big oak doors that led into the Oklahoma House of Night, where all the vampyre fledglings like me stayed, and looked around in excitement. No one here knew who I was or what I had done. They would treat me as an equal instead of fearing me and my terrible gift that Nyx, the vampyre goddess gave me. Once again it flashed through my mind, what had happened that day, when I had killed him, when I learned of my gift. To never miss when I shot an arrow at the target I was thinking of. The professors probably knew already, but I might have a better chance at this school with none of the kids knowing. Besides, I heard previously that the most powerful fledgling out of all vampyres and fledglings were in this school, and I hoped that I could meet her. Was she really covered with Nyx's tattoos?

Duchess, my yellow Labrador, shoved her head under my hand which brought me back to the present. Dragon Lankford was leading me towards the dining hall after I had insisted that Duch and I needed to eat. The doors were open and I saw a few curious fledglings peer out and look at me, who they thought the new kid- not the transfer student. Hissing and mewing came from behind me and I turned around in time to see a grey disheveled cat swipe at Duchess's nose. Duchess started, angrily chasing after few of the cats. They automatically dashed into the dining hall and leaped on the tables next to their owners. Duchess stopped in the middle of the hall growling menacingly at the nearest cat, an orange tabby sitting next to a fledgling that had her crescent shaped tattoo filled in, and other tattoos around her face going down her neck and disappearing over her shoulder. She must be the special fledgling.

"Got ya!" I said as I grabbed her collar and clipped her leash onto it. She whined but obediently sat down.

"Yeah, great, now you want to act right." She wagged her tail happily.

"You see, James, this was what I was trying to explain to you earlier. The animal just won't work at this House of Night." Dragon frowned disapprovingly at Duchess, who was still being hissed at by every cat in the room so that it sounded like air escaping from a lot of punctured balloons.

"It's Stark, not James. And like _I_ was trying to explain to _you_ earlier- the dog stays with me. It's just the way it is. If you want me, you get the dog too." I retorted with a hint of exasperation in my voice, perfectly aware that every single fledgling's eyes were on me. Why couldn't they just give Duch a chance?

"Stark. It's just not possible to integrate a dog into this campus. You can see how much she's upsetting the cats." Lenobia was still insisting. "They'll get used to her. They did at the Chicago House of Night. She's usually pretty good about not chasing them around." I pet Duchess who automatically leaned her head against my leg.

"My goodness, what's all this noise about?" A tall beautiful vampire strolled in behind me. She had dark auburn hair that fell down in thick glossy waves up to her waist and her moss green eyes sparkled as she smiled down at me. My eyes widened as I tried to take in the beauty and power that radiated off her whole body in waves.

"Neferet, I apologize for the disruption. This is my new fledgling. He arrived only moments ago." Dragon placed his fist over his heart and bowed respectfully to the High Priestess. "That explains how the fledgling got here. That does not explain how _that_ got here." Neferet pointed to Duchess who was ignoring everyone and panting.

"She's with me." I said. Neferet turned to me and I mimicked Dragons salute and bow, and then gave her a lopsided cocky grin. "She's my version of a cat." "Really?" Neferet lifted one slim auburn brow. "Well, Priestess, she's a Lab, but she's trained. Check it out." I turned to Duchess and told her, "Gimme five, Duch." Duchess lifted her big paw and slapped it against my hand. "Good girl, Duch."

I turned back to Neferet. "But dog or cat, she and I have been together since I was marked four years ago, so that makes her cat enough for me." "A Labrador Retriever?" Neferet made a show of walking around Duchess and studying her.

"She's awfully large."

"Well yeah, Duch has always been a big girl, Priestess."

"Duch? That's her name?" I nodded and grinned.

"It's short for Duchess." Neferet looked away from Duchess and said "What is your name, child?"

"Stark." I said, noticing her jaw clench ever so slightly. "James Stark?" Neferet asked. "A few months ago I dropped my first name. It's just Stark." I said, irritated. She completely ignored me and turned to Dragon.

"He's the transfer we've been expecting from the Chicago House of Night?" "Yes, priestess." Dragon said. She looked back at me with renewed interest. "Make sure he can have 24/7 access to the training fields and any archery equipment."

"Ok."

Neferet led me to the table with the weirdly marked fledgling, where she said something to one of the kids sitting there. "Stark, this is Zoey Redbird, the leader of The Dark Daughters. Zoey, I trust you will find a solution to the dog problem." As I watched them, I noticed a spark of cold hatred in Neferet's eyes, and suspicious untrust in Zoeys. Then in the space of a second she looked back to me and her eyes became warm again, her stance now suddenly relaxed. Weird. Neferet left and I stood at the foot of the table looking down at the kids.

"Get something to eat then go practice. Welcome to the House of Night, Stark." Neferet turned and walked away. Zoey asked if I was hungry, and introduced everyone.

"Hi Stark this is Erin Bates, Shaunee Cole, Jack Twist and Damien Maslin, and Aphrodite." One by one he pointed to the kids sitting. Erin and Shaunee looked me up and down, but I pretended not to notice, staring instead at Zoey. Her hand was twirling her long, wavy dark brown hair that flowed down to her shoulders.

"Stark, I'll show you where the trays and stuff are." Damien's voice derailed my train of thought. "Okay. Just make sure the cat doesn't bother Duchess. Duch, sit!" I said to Zoey staring at her curiously, wondering why Neferet seemed to hate her so much. Damien dragged me to the food. I looked back at the table to see them all watching me, and when the noticed me looking, Erin and Shaunee grinned and waved. I grabbed a plate and loaded it up with food. Suddenly ravenous I hurried back to the table to sit down and eat. Erin and Shaunee hurriedly made a seat between them which I took.

"Hey, you're the James from the Vamp Summer Olympics? Wow. Why'd you leave?" Though Damien had said it out of curiosity, it still irritated me to answer so many questions on my first day here, so I looked down at my plate of food and started shoveling it down. Just then Zoey got up and said something that I wasn't paying attention to. I waved and watched her go. The 'Twins' Erin and Shaunee started enthusiastically talking.

Eventually, Jack got up and said "Hey Stark, come on so I can show you the boys dorm so you can settle down and hang out. Oh, and your schedule is over here too." Reaching into his bag, Jack rummaged until he came out with a piece of crumpled paper that had the same schedule I had in my old House of Night, but with all different professors. And this time I had Equestrian Study instead of Tai-Kwan-Do like I'd used to.

As I examined it, Jack scurried off to lead me through the campus up a flight of stairs and into the boy's dormitory, which looked nearly the same as back home, so I looked on uninterestedly until we got to my empty room. Jack started babbling about something I didn't really follow that I put to the back of my mind, instead looking around. My side of the room had already been filled with all my stuff.

"Hey, um, Jack? I'm going to go and practice archery down at the training field in a bit. Could you show me where it is in about half an hour?" I said interrupting his consistent babble, which made him look sort of crestfallen.

"Hey it's not that you're boring or something like that, it's just that Neferet said that I should start practicing again so I could get better, and she's the high priestess so crossing her is not a good idea." Jack lightened up and left. Then I fell asleep.

"Stark, wake up!"I opened my eyes to see Damien and Jack hovering over my bed.

"You'll be late for your practicing." Jack started his babbling again about his classes as he led Duchess and I to the training arena.

"OK so I'll see you later?" I asked as the bell for class rang.

"Yeah, sure." Jack replied as he dashed away to try and avoid being late.

Once Jack disappeared, I put my bag down and took out my bow and arrows.

"Duchess, sit somewhere over there, away from me." As usual, she paid me no heed and dutifully sat down directly at my feet for a nap. I fitted the arrow into the bow and looked at the target, imagining the arrow hitting it in my head. I let it loose and the arrow flitted over to the target and buried its self deep into the tiny red center. I turned around and imagined the arrow going into the target and shot at one of the surrounding trees. The arrow flew towards the tree but then disappeared and returned again in the target's center. Just to try it, I grabbed two arrows, notched it and shot, thinking of the tiny red center. A few seconds after my release, they both made a simultaneous twang as they hit my mark. Again and again I did arrow combos and singles, each hitting the mark as I shot faster and faster.

Then, pausing for a break, I heard someone walk in behind me. I notched another arrow and shot, pretending not to notice them. Hearing a gasp of surprise as the arrow hit the mark, I said "I know your there," and turned around to see an astonished Zoey.

"Hey, I'm glad you're here. I wanted to see you."

After a moment's pause, I walked a little closer.

"So you really have an affinity for all the elements? There was a high priestess at my old house that had an affinity for fire. She actually made things burn. Can you do that?" Zoey looked around awkwardly, twisting her fingers around in her hand.

"Yeah, but I can't do things like burning water or anything bizarre like that. Why?"

"Well, I wanted to tell you my gift. It has to do with this" I nodded towards the bow in my hand. She gave me a weird look.

"What does my element affinities have to do with your _gift_?"

"My gift is that I never miss a shot. I'm horrible at explaining things, so I'll give you an example. Do you know William Chidsey?" Again, she gave me the 'wow your nuts' look.

"Um, no, I'm not really familiar with politics. " I gave her an exasperated sigh.

"Will wasn't into politics. He was the undisputed archery champion for almost 200 years. Until six months ago, he ruled. Until I killed him."

Zoey was so shocked she actually took a step back. Duchess got up and rubbed her head on my leg to try and comfort me.

"We were in the practice lanes. They were these long thin areas sectioned off by white linen dividers. Will was to my right. I was thinking of only the gold medal, of wanting to win. When it was time for me to shoot, I was looking at the target but was visualizing beating Will in my head. When I shot, the arrow disappeared and hit Will in the heart, killing him instantly. He wasn't even near the target." Zoey looked at me with an expression full of disbelief.

"But Stark, maybe it wasn't you. Maybe it was some kind of weird magical fluke." Zoey said it almost earnestly, like she didn't want to hear that I had killed someone.

"That's what I thought too, so I decided to test it out. There was this freight train that used to go by the school every day, and it had a red caboose attached to it. I thought of the caboose, shot and the next day found the arrow in its side. I'm dangerous when I don't want to be." Zoey had a look of discomfort and sympathy now.

"Maybe you should put up your bow and arrow, at least until you have a handle on that gift of yours."

I frowned. "That's what I should do, and I have tried but if I don't practice, it's like something inside me is being ripped away, dying." Zoey and I stood there without saying anything for a while.

"So did they throw you out because you killed Will?" "Yeah, I think so." We stood there silently for a little while longer.

"Hey um, Stark. I better go to start grooming my horse. See ya!"

"Thanks for not freaking out about what I just told you." I turned from her and shot at the target once more. The arrow hit the target and I saw her out of the corner of my eye turn to leave. That's when I coughed.

Two seconds later I coughed again, feeling the blood rattling in the back of my throat. Behind me, Zoey stopped moving.

"Zoey!" My mouth was almost completely filled with blood and as I called her name I fell to the floor, puking up liters and liters of blood. As I fell backwards, I felt Zoey catch my body and lay me on her knees.

"Zoey, listen before I'm gone. Promise me two things. Promise that you won't forget me. And promise you'll take care of Duchess." I could just make out her startled look.

"A dog? But I-" I cut her off. "Don't let them send her away. To strangers. At least she knows you and can tell I care about you." I said that with desperation in my voice. But now I was weak.

So I shut my eyes and let my body go. The last thing I remembered before I died was Zoey's arms around me and her tears in my face. As my life faded away, I heard Duchess's broken howl, filled with loneliness and sorrow.


End file.
